Irving president hints supply ship pitch could outdo Davie's

The president of Irving Shipbuilding unveiled his company’s proposal to lease the government a maritime supply ship that he says could be delivered in half the time, at half the price of Davie’s interim supply ship.

“You can make the decision,” Kevin McCoy said Tuesday afternoon when pressed about whether the proposed vessel could replace the $700-million interim supply ship currently under construction in Quebec by Chantier Davie.

Irving submitted the proposal last week as its response to the government’s call for industry input on its defence policy review.

The proposal comes just months after a heated public war of words between Irving and Seaspan — both contracted to supply ships under the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy — and Davie, the firm with which the former government had negotiated a contract with for a $700-million interim supply ship in July 2015, after both of Canada’s remaining supply ships had to be retired.

There was speculation in November that the new Liberal government might decide against signing that deal, but they did.

Both Irving and Seaspan have been fiercely protective of the work allocated to them under the NSS, criticizing Davie, which bid and lost for the NSS work because of financial problems, for submitting unsolicited proposals for work from the government.

Davie issued a press release Wednesday morning calling the Irving pitch an “unsolicited proposal” and McCoy fired back at that repeatedly during his press conference.

“This is not an unsolicited proposal. I could say that probably five times,” McCoy said, insisting his firm is not trying to get the government to abandon the Davie contract. “We’re not proposing that.”

The ship proposed by Irving would be a five-year-old commercial ship outfitted to allow Canadian peacekeepers and humanitarian crew to expand their offerings in emergencies and natural disasters.

The cost per ship is pegged at $300 million, including crew and life cycle costs, and it could be delivered in under a year, McCoy said, noting he believes the government should have several.